Bara Confident Over Messi Stay

The Argentine sensation has been called up to play the Olympic Games despite resistance from the Catalan club.

Barcelona are confident FIFA will reconsider their position on Messi's case, having reminded that the olympic tournament is not part of FIFA's official calendar.

Although the international football governing body confirmed some days ago the obligation to allow players aged under 23 to compete "because of the importance of the olympic tournament for sports, in general, and football, in particular", Barcelona consider this reason to be much different from the standard regulation to allow footballers to compete in FIFA's official tournaments.

"This case is different, because there is a greater rule, such as FIFA's regulations, that only obligates clubs to allow their players to compete in matches that are part of FIFA's calender and the olympic competition is not on the list," a Barcelona spokesperson told EFE.

Barcelona are now asking FIFA to reconsider its position in order to use Messi during the Champions League third qualifying round.

However, time is not on Barcelona's side, as Messi was vaccinated against hepatitis B and other diseases earlier this week in order to be able to fly to Beijing. The Argentine player has already received the plane ticket to travel next Tuesday to Japan, where his national squad will play a friendly match ahead of the start of the Olympic Games.


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